


Lunchtime

by chellerrific



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellerrific/pseuds/chellerrific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hachi and Mashiro are running late with lunch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lunchtime

It was a beautiful late summer day full of promise. Mashiro’s heart felt light, and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. After over a century of waiting, things were finally moving in Soul Society. She had only just met Carrot Top, and he had a long way to go before he got control of his inner Hollow, but she liked and trusted him, and she could tell he was strong—maybe strong enough to end things once and for all.

On top of that, she was out in the city, with Hachi loping beside her. Mashiro volunteered to go out and run errands as much as possible, so she could get some sun and fresh air. Home was so… cave-y. She’d even lobbied to be the one to recruit Ichigo, but between her hair color and general personality, she had been unanimously shot down, and Shinji had gone instead.

But lunch duty, she could be trusted with.

“You’re in a good mood,” Hachi observed.

“Aren’t you?” She looked up at him, the bags with their lunch bumping against her knees as she walked. “Ichigo’s gonna kick Sosuke’s butt! And then…”

“And then?” Hachi prompted when she didn’t speak for a moment.

“I guess I don’t know ‘and then.’ But the butt-kicking part will be sweet!”

“I don’t know if you should get your hopes too high. I believe in Ichigo too but I don’t believe in Soul Society. Whatever the outcome with Aizen, it’s likely nothing else will change for us.”

Mashiro frowned. “I know. I don’t really know what I want from them anyway, if anything. But I like this feeling of possibility. It’s like a balloon in my heart. Do you know what I mean?”

He gave her a small smile. “I believe I do.”

The sound of sirens caught their attention. They could see smoke and localized chaos just ahead.

“Hey,” Mashiro said, grabbing his sleeve with her free hand. “That building’s on fire!”

She broke into a run. Hachi followed at a more leisurely pace, his long stride allowing him to cover more ground with less effort.

The building was completely engulfed in flames, firemen below trying to keep it contained.

“There are still people inside!” cried an ash-covered woman who looked like she was lucky to have made it out. She pointed at the upper floors before dissolving into a fit of coughing.

People were trapped inside and the flames were threatening to make the jump to another building. “Hachi!” Mashiro called to him when he caught up, handing him the bags. “Use a barrier to keep the fire contained there. I’m going to save the people inside.”

Technically they were supposed to keep a low profile, so Mashiro at least took the precaution of running around the side of the building before leaping up to the open windows of the top floor. There was life up here, though it was faint, and the smoke was thick. But she quickly found the survivors—two of them. They were unconscious, which was probably fortunate because they might have been confused by the small girl hefting them up on her shoulders like they were small sacks of flour and not full-grown men.

A hop, skip, and a jump later, all three of them were back down on street level, Mashiro depositing them safely on the sidewalk. Only the sooty woman seemed to notice, and if she said anything about it, it would probably be chalked up to smoke inhalation.

“Was there anyone else?” Mashiro asked her.

The woman just shook her head and continued to stare, open-mouthed.

For their part, the firemen were stunned at how the fire seemed to have shrunk so suddenly, but that was only because they didn’t know what Hachi could do with kido.

Once Mashiro was satisfied things were under control, she took the bags back from Hachi before starting off down the street again, nodding for him to follow.

They had only gotten another couple blocks before a car went tearing past them, tires squealing on pavement. Hot in pursuit were two police cars.

Mashiro barely spared the time to exchange glances with Hachi, then took off running again. “We can cut them off this way!” she called, sprinting down an alley. “Come on, Hachi! I need you to hit their back tires with Byakurai!”

Hachi stepped up his pace to catch up with her, even though it quickly left him short of breath. The car came roaring up the street and as instructed, Hachi shot a low-level hado at it, tightly reining in the power of the attack so it didn’t destroy the car entirely, along with a good bit of street. The driver lost control of the car and smashed into a store front.

“Oops?” Mashiro said to Hachi, who shrugged a little.

The doors of the car were flung open and three men climbed out, some with greater difficulty than others.

“I don’t think so!” Mashiro said, handing her bags off to Hachi again before vaulting over a parked car in her way and dashing across the street. Keeping a low profile meant leaving their zanpakuto behind, but Mashiro never considered this a problem, since she was a hakuda master on par with Kensei. She hadn’t gotten her former position on sheer cuteness, after all, even if hers would have been enough. Two of the men fell to a broad sweeping Mashiro Kick; the third took a Mashiro Punch to the nose before joining them.

The police were running up the street by then, so Mashiro beat a hasty retreat to rejoin Hachi in the alley.

“It seems we are now officially running a bit late with lunch,” Hachi observed, handing her bags back to her once more.

“It was for the greater good,” Mashiro said.

Another block passed before they came across the lost child.

“I do believe you take Love’s classification of us as superheroes a bit too literally,” Hachi observed once the child and his mother were reunited.

Mashiro struck a victory pose in response.

When they got back home, much later than expected but bursting with stories to tell, they found Hiyori and Ichigo embroiled in some kind of fight, and the opportunity to tell those stories never presented itself. But that was okay; superheroics and a nice afternoon out were their own reward. Plus, Shinji probably would have gotten mad at their flamboyance anyway, so it was a good thing none of them caught the evening news.


End file.
